Nicole Rae and Cory Chisel perform at Thursday's Mile of Music announcement event. Rae and Chisel are both nominees at tonight's WAMI Awards in Appleton. / Wm.Glasheen/Post-Crescent Media

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Post-Crescent Media

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The 34th annual WAMI Awards take place at 7 tonight at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in downtown Appleton. Check out photos, video and reports from the ceremony at foxcitieshub.com.

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These are heady days for music fans in the Fox Valley.

Some of the state’s finest bands and artists — from rock to country and stops in between — are assembling tonight at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton for the annual WAMI Awards.

The Wisconsin Area Music Industry annually gathers the state’s musical forces to celebrate a mutual love of music and hand out some hardware to bands that are ripping it up in bars and clubs around the state most every weekend. For much of WAMI’s history, the party was a very Milwaukee-centric thing. The bash was held in Milwaukee and the vast majority of nominees in the various categories came from the Milwaukee metro area.

That’s changed in recent years. Where seeing a Fox Valley band among the nominees was once an exception to the rule, it’s now the norm. More than 20 artists who call the Fox Valley home are in the mix tonight. And having the gorgeous Fox Cities PAC as the location for the big party, well, that’s a major thumbs up to what’s become a more robust music scene here.

To add to the excitement, the WAMI ceremony comes on the heels of Thursday’s announcement that the Mile of Music festival, which debuted in downtown Appleton last August, will more than double in size this year. An estimated 215 bands are expected to descend on Appleton’s downtown Aug. 7-10, playing at more than 60 venues ranging from Lawrence University’s Memorial Chapel to outdoor spaces at Houdini Plaza and Jones Park to the bars and coffee shops that dot College Avenue.

Organizers announced roughly 50 of the 200-plus bands on Thursday — that includes side projects featuring members of R.E.M., Wilco and Foo Fighters — with the remaining bands expected to be unveiled between now and the end of May.

The sampling was enough to get the juices flowing. Here are some questions to be answered in the coming weeks as the schedule comes into focus.

Who will get headliner treatment? Co-founder Dave Willems said that’s still a work in progress. Memorial Chapel, Houdini Plaza and Jones Park will all be home to headliner shows but who, what and when will have to wait until details are nailed down.

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Will people respond to the $150 VIP tickets? That’s up $51 from last year’s price. A year ago, festival-goers could buy the $99 all-access VIP ticket or opt for lower priced tickets for individual headliner shows. This year there will not be multiple pricing options. While most performances at the festival will be free, there will be select shows, including those at Memorial Chapel, that will be open only to VIP ticket holders.

Willems said on Thursday that sales of VIP tickets will play a big role in the financial health of the festival.

The schedule and band announcements coming in the next few weeks will go a long way to clarifying exactly what value music fans will get for that $150 commitment. Stay tuned.

Will the festival draw from outside of the Fox Valley? That’s the hope, Willems said, as he pointed to an early prediction that 30,000 to 50,000 people could attend this year’s festival, up from the 15,000 to 20,000 that were estimated a year ago.

Keep in mind that crowd estimates are sketchy at best because tickets are not needed for most of the performances. But a turnout doubling last year — with visitors coming from Milwaukee, Madison and beyond — would be sweet music for the festival, the downtown and the Fox Cities as a whole.

Will the buzz created last year continue as the festival grows in size and scope? There’s no reason to think it won’t, having gotten rave reviews from both musicians and music fans.

“My phone has just been full of people who came last year and they’re writing me with suggestions,” said co-founder Cory Chisel, an Appleton native singer-songwriter who is a nominee for artist of the year at tonight’s WAMIs. “People are seeing this festival is about attitude and discovery, and so everyone has a favorite band that a lot of people don’t know about.

“We’ve been finding out about them through other bands,” Chisel said. “That’s part of the fun for us. The first year we knew every single band. This year I’m going to see bands I’ve never heard before. I think it’s going to grow like that.”

That’s nothing but good news for anyone who wants to discover a new band, explore a new sound or try a new venue.

Whether it’s a tip of the hat for your favorite band at tonight’s WAMI Awards or a growing anticipation for what Mile of Music might bring, it’s a good time to be a music fan in the Fox Valley.